Postdad 👟

"He's not mad at your slow API, just disappointed."

Postdad is a high-speed, local-first Terminal UI (TUI) for testing APIs. It’s built in Rust 🦀 because Electron apps shouldn't eat 1GB of RAM just to send a GET request.

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Why Postdad?

Modern dev tools are bloated. Postman takes 5-10 seconds to launch. Postdad takes <100ms.

Features

• Vim-Motion Navigation: Use j, k, and / to fly through your request history.
• Three-Pane Layout: Collections on the left, Request on top, Response at bottom.
• JSON Explorer: Interactive tree view for massive JSON responses. Expansion/Collapse nodes with arrow keys.
• Dad's Garage: Local-first collection storage. No login required.
• Async & Non-Blocking: The UI never freezes, even if the API times out.
• Latency Heartbeat: Real-time graph monitoring your API's pulse.
• Zen Mode: Press Ctrl+z to focus purely on the response data.

Installation

cargo install Postdad

Update

cargo install --force Postdad

Usage

Postdad

• Ctrl+z: Toggle Zen Mode (Focus)
• Ctrl+w: Toggle WebSocket Mode
• f: Toggle Fullscreen Response
• Enter: Send Request (or Sync Param Edit)
• e: Edit URL (Press Tab to cycle method)
• Tab: Switch Request Tabs (Params, Headers, Body, Auth)
• c: Copy as cURL command
• G (Shift+g): Copy as Python (requests) code
• J (Shift+j): Copy as JavaScript (fetch) code
• Ctrl+t: Cycle Themes (Default, Matrix, Cyberpunk, Dracula)
• q: Quit (Dad needs a nap)

Tab Context Actions

• Params Tab:
  • a: Add Param | d: Delete Param | e: Edit Key/Value
• Auth Tab:
  • t: Switch Type (None/Bearer/Basic/OAuth2) | u: Edit User | p: Edit Password
  • OAuth 2.0: Enter to Start Flow | i/1/2 to Edit Config
• Chain Tab:
  • a: Add Rule | d: Delete Rule | e: Edit Key/Path
• Body Tab:
  • m: Switch Type (Raw/Multipart/GraphQL)
  • Multipart: a Add | Space Toggle File | d Delete
  • GraphQL: Q (Shift+q) Edit Query | V (Shift+v) Edit Variables

Roadmap to Recognition

• Basic TUI Engine
• Async Request Worker
• JSON Response Explorer (Interactive)
• Collection Management (.hcl support)
• "Dad's Directions" (Copy as Curl) (c key)
• Response Timing (ms precision)
• Request Chaining (Variable Extraction from JSON Response using full JSONPath support via jsonpath_lib)
• Latency Heartbeat (Real-time graph)
• Zen Mode (Focus on Response)
• Search / Filter JSON (/ key)
• Fullscreen Response View (f key)
• Interactive Query Params (Table Editor)
• Extended Auth (Basic, Bearer, OAuth 2.0 with Browser Flow)
• Time-Travel History (Restore full response state)
• Environment Variables
• Request Body Editor (b key -> $EDITOR)
  • Pro Tip: For VS Code integration, run export EDITOR="code --wait" (Mac/Linux) or set $env:EDITOR="code --wait" (PowerShell).
• Method Cycling (m key)
• Multipart Form Data Support (Form Data & File Uploads via Space)
• GraphQL Support (Query & Variables editing)
• Status Codes (Color-coded)
• Help Screen (? key)
• Header Editing (H key -> $EDITOR as JSON)
• Persistence (s key -> saved.hcl)
• Persistence for Chain Rules & Multipart Data
• Refactor Collection Saving Logic
• Cookie Jar 🍪: Automatically stores and sends Set-Cookie headers for stateful sessions
• Code Generators 💻: Generate request code for Python (Requests) and JavaScript (Fetch) with G and J keys
• WebSocket Support 🔌: Full WS/WSS client with Ctrl+W to toggle mode, real-time messaging, and connection management
• Pre-Request Scripts 📜: Rhai scripting engine for running hooks before requests (P to edit)
• Collection Runner 🏃: Run all requests in a collection sequentially with status code assertions (Ctrl+R)
• Dynamic Themes 🎨: Cycle between Matrix, Cyberpunk, Dracula, and Default themes (Ctrl+T)
• Splash Screen ⚡: Awesome retro-terminal startup screen

WebSocket Mode (Ctrl+W to enter)

• e: Edit WebSocket URL
• Enter: Connect / Disconnect
• i: Start typing a message
• Enter (while typing): Send message
• j/k: Scroll through message history
• x: Clear message history
• ?: WebSocket Help

Collection Runner (Ctrl+R to enter)

Run all requests in a collection sequentially and see pass/fail results.

• j/k: Navigate collections (before run) or scroll results (after run)
• Enter: Run selected collection
• x: Clear results
• Esc: Exit runner mode
• ?: Help

Status Code Assertions: By default, expects HTTP 200. Add expected_status = XXX in your .hcl file to specify a different expected status:

request "Create User" {
  method = "POST"
  url = "https://api.example.com/users"
  expected_status = 201
}

Pre-Request Scripts (P to edit)

Press P to open your $EDITOR and write Rhai scripts that run before each request.

Available Functions:

Constants: METHOD, URL, BODY

Example Script:

// Add timestamp header to every request
let ts = timestamp();
set_header("X-Request-Time", ts.to_string());

// Add request ID
let id = uuid();
set_header("X-Request-ID", id);

Leveling Up to Postman (Future Ideas)

To truly rival Postman, we still need:

1. Import/Export 📦: Import Postman Collections (.json) and OpenAPI/Swagger specs
2. Test Scripts 🧪: Post-request assertions (like Postman's pm.test())
3. More Code Generators 💻: Add support for Go, Rust, Ruby, PHP, and C#
4. Proxy Support 🔒: HTTP/SOCKS proxy configuration for corporate environments
5. Request Tabs 📑: Work on multiple requests simultaneously
6. Response History 📜: View previous responses for a request
7. Binary Response Handling 📁: Download files, preview images
8. SSL Certificate Config 🔐: Custom CA certs, client certificates
9. Request Timeout Settings ⏱️: Per-request timeout configuration
10. Syntax Highlighting 🎨: In-app JSON/code highlighting
11. Mock Servers 🎭: Create mock endpoints for testing
12. gRPC Support �: Protocol buffers and gRPC streaming
13. GraphQL Introspection 🔍: Auto-complete from schema
14. Request Diff 🔀: Compare two responses side by side
15. API Documentation Gen 📝: Generate docs from collections

License

MIT